Excerpt from Henry S. Nourse’s “History of the Town of Harvard Massachusetts 1732–1893,” written in 1894.
The irrepressible conflict between free and slave labor in the United States had been waged for nearly three-quarters of a century. Sectional bitterness had grown year by year until blatant extremists on either side declared the Union unworthy longer preservation. Compromise and concession only made the slave oligarchies more insolent and aggressive. The far more rapid growth of the free republican commonwealths had given them preponderance in national councils and it was evident that the day of one-sided compromises was at an end; that republican ideas were to rule under the constitution.
The election of Abraham Lincoln furnished an excuse for the ambitious aristocrats and political hacks of the South, who had lost all hope of controlling the government longer, to intrigue for its destruction. Open rebellion, often threatened and long prepared for by a few, soon became a fact, and found the North unready and ignorantly apathetic.
The guns at Charleston were trained upon the national ensign floating over Fort Sumter for the purpose of “firing the Southern heart,” but the traitorous act set the Northern temper ablaze. The riotous assault of April 19, 1861, upon the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment when passing through Baltimore for the defence of the capital, awoke the most lethargic patriot to a sense of the nation’s danger, and as in 1776, the New England town-meetings gave expression to the popular will and began the organization of republican victory.
In Harvard at a legal meeting called: April 29, 1861—Resolutions were offered by Rev. Mr. Whitwell, which were slightly amended, and passed by an unanimous vote, as follows:
Whereas, in the present state of affairs, when the government of our country is threatened with anarchy, and the destruction of our glorious republic is menaced, it becomes all good citizens to rally for the defence of the constitution and the laws; therefore,
Resolved, that we the citizens of Harvard, in town-meeting assembled, hereby vote to appropriate the sum of $4,000 for the purpose of equipping and paying a bounty to soldiers who may volunteer their services to suppress the present rebellion.
. . . The town then voted “to make up the pay of each volunteer with what he receives for the state, the sum of $22 per month while in actual service”; also voted “to pay the volunteers of this town each the sum of $5 per month while drilling at home, preparatory for service.
The following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved, that it is the duty of all good citizens to frown indignantly upon, and follow with uncompromising hostility every individual among us, if any there be, who shall express sentiments disloyal to the government of the United States, or shall sympathize with the plotters of treason and bloodshed.
Voted that the town provide for the families of those volunteers who join the army, if needed.
275 Years of a Town: In June 1732, the town of Harvard incorporated within the colony, after nearly 100 years of settlement in the area and several years of petitions, objections, and re-petitions to the legislature. To celebrate this milestone, the Press is running extracts from Henry S. Nourse’s History of the Town of Harvard Massachusetts 1732–1893.